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Members of the former
T&G cab section, now called Unite, were recently seen on a
bridge crossing the M4 photographing private hire vehicles from
Addison Lee who were under instruction from their boss, John
Griffin, to ignore signs banning all vehicles other than buses
or taxis from the bus lane. Unite said it was fed up with misuse of
the bus lane by drivers who were not supposed to be in it. When Call Sign looked into the problem (September: Was someone telling porkies?) it didn’t take long for us to discover the problem. On that occasion, we published the letter that John Griffin sent to his drivers. Signed John Griffin, Chairman Addison Lee, it read: This is to inform you that we can now use the bus lane on the M4. Please carry this letter with you as evidence and invite anyone questioning the authenticity of this instruction to contact me on the office number. We shall of course be pursuing our right to use all bus lanes but for now the M4 is a start. In reality, only buses, coaches, motorbikes, emergency vehicles and licensed London taxis can use the 3.5 mile bus lane. The only other vehicles that could possibly resemble London PH cars and cause confusion are taxis from other parts of the UK - all of whom can use any London bus/taxi lane provided they are in their licensed taxi. But Addison Lee cars cannot. The biggest problem is the total lack of enforcement, with just fourteen £60 fixed penalties notices issued in 2008. Speaking logically, it seems surprising that those on business meetings for high powered City companies haven’t also jumped onto the bandwagon for the sake of £60, as the lane has no dedicated cameras and the Met |
Taxi drivers photograph Addison Lee M4 bus lane misuse |
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 Police told this magazine in September that they had far more important enforcement to take care of than policing a bus lane. We also told the PCO at the time. They said it was nothing to do with them and that we should contact Transport for London. We did and they passed the buck onto the Highways Agency – who in turn said there was nothing they could do. As Call Sign also said, if Mr Griffin believes that he is above the law, then the PCO / TfL should remove the licensing from all his vehicles until such time as he can prove that to be the case? After all, we have been told off just for issuing receipts that the PCO didn’t approve of!John Griffin has now said that he believes Addison Lee drivers have the right to use the lane and claims that he is willing to legally challenge any tickets they get. He added: "If we don't get satisfaction in UK courts, we will go to the European court because this is a clear act of discrimination. We seek to compete, for the benefit of the public in a way that is fair to all." Discrimination, Mr Griffin? What discrimination? Just because I can tell someone to take a pill for a headache, it doesn’t mean I can leave my car in the doctor’s surgery parking bay. If your drivers do a full version of the Knowledge and then still prefer to work for you, then I for one will |
no longer object to your use of a
taxi and bus lane. Otherwise, you are minicabs, renamed as private
hire and NOT licensed taxis. If a Dial-a-Cab driver announced in a national newspaper that he was going to use the contra-flow Piccadilly bus lane as he owed a duty to his passengers to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible, Call Sign believes that the PCO would quickly act against that driver. Yet so far as we know, nothing has been done about Addison Lee’s deliberate snubbing of those whose rules we are supposed to be following. So perhaps those in charge – ie PCO, TfL, Highways Agency or if they can spare a minute, the Metropolitan Police, can leave the comfort of their offices and do something useful about this situation. Under the Data Protection Act, I recently asked for my PCO files. They went back beyond even my time as a licensed taxi driver. But one thing never changes throughout the 40+ years in the thick wad of paper; not once was I accorded the respect of being known as Mr Fisher. It was always just Fisher. Schoolmaster and pupil comes to mind. But not, I feel I can safely guess, when it comes to John Griffin, Chairman of Addison Lee! Of course, there may be no connection, but wasn’t it a certain John Griffin who made a sizeable donation to the Mayor’s election fund? 25K wasn’t it? Obviously just a coincidence.
Alan Fisher |
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